A historic movement is gaining momentum across the United States: the Convention of States.

States have the constitutional right to meet and amend the Constitution. A resolution or application for a convention must go through the state Legislature. It takes 34 states to make this happen. Eight states have passed it; it’s in the process of more than 30 other state legislatures.

Americans are fed up with Congress. They want accountability. New York, which ranks first in corruption, has found a way to hold the Article V Resolution J3572 captive in the New York Senate Rules Committee.

According to Beth Garvey, counsel for the Senate Majority, it violates Rule VII 9(b), “A resolution supporting or condemning, or proposing or urging a change in Federal law, which is not directly germane to the affairs, business, rights, benefits and obligations of New York State shall be out of order and shall not be reported.”

So, a resolution for a balanced federal budget, tax reform, term limits on the Supreme Court and reining in government overreach isn’t good for New York?

Attempts to meet with Garvey or Senate Majority Leader John J. Flanagan have been unsuccessful. All of our lobbying efforts have been futile.

This was our first effort in a grassroots movement. I suppose we were naive in thinking our state leaders would embrace this opportunity. We’re still hoping that New York will be at the table when an Article V Convention of States is finally called.

According to NPR radio, a poll says 40 percent of Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders’ supporters in West Virginia will vote for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump if Sanders does not become the Democratic nominee.

I’ll bet a lot of that 40 percent are men. What Trump and Sanders have in common, I think, is their appeal to men who feel victimized.

Trump says, unapologetically, “I’m a whiner!” and something like, “If I don’t get what I want, I whine about it! I’ll take you to court and sue you! If you hit me, I’ll hit you back ten times as hard!”

If we don’t want this kind of cluelessness to continue, then our society’s contempt for boys’ and men’s physical and emotional vulnerability, and the sources of that contempt, need to brought up out of our collective subconscious, examined, critically challenged and ended (Maybe this is happening a bit; the newly emerging outrage about footballer concussions is a good sign).

And in my experience, soldier-automaton-making and heartless and mindless contempt for boys’ and men’s experiences of physical and emotional vulnerability is as much a problem among matriarch- minded left-wingers as it is among patriarch-minded right-wingers.

Everybody needs to shape up on this! And we should all be democratically-minded instead of matriarch-minded or patriarch-minded!

Gregory Bynum

New Paltz

Father, daughter offer thanks to stranger

My father and I would like to thank the stranger who helped us change a flat tire recently at the entrance to the Hannaford grocery store on Route 55.

There were several cars that went by, but this gentleman stopped and helped my dad change the flat as he was taking me to work. I texted my co-worker and told him where I was.

Thank you again, kind sir, for your timely assistance in a time of need that helped my dad get on his way back home safely.